Tuesday, March 20, 2012

While spending most of last Friday morning on the Minor Repair site in Ventura, Matthew O. stopped by to pick up some tools and equipment to take back with him to the Stroube St. site. He mentioned how stoked he was since the ladies from Louisville High School out of Woodland Hills were doing an awesome job.

I had already heard that these ladies did excellent work so I decided to stop by the Stroube St. site on my way back to Oxnard and see what they were up to. When I arrived on site, they were as busy as can be completing a fence, staging materials for the next day and keeping the site clean. As expected, this great group of gals lived up to the reputation they are known for - exceptionally hard workers. Kudos to all of you! Thank you so much for your time and effort!

That particular Friday was cold and a bit blustery however, these wonderful ladies showed up, braved the weather and helped us in our mission to fight homelessness - way to go Louisville!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

We are well into the new year and I'm proud to announce that we have graduated to the next component of our Preserve a Home program. It's called Minor Repair and it encompasses a greater scope of work than A Brush With Kindness. This particular component is exciting since we actually go into the home and address weatherization and safety issues, not to mention re-freshening interior walls with a new coat of paint (and maybe a change of color/decor???).

So work is underway for our first Minor Repair home and before the project evolves any further, I wanted to give kudos to the crew from Center for Employment Training for their hard work in removing the old asphalt driveway and the concrete walkway on Friday 3/9. There are several tasks in the overall scope for this preservation project and they undertook one of the hardest.

The work they completed wasn't easy but that didn't matter, they still dug in and got the job done. Towards the end of the day, Ivan was wearing down as he swung an axe as part of the tree stump removal project we have going on there. As he was slowing down between swings, Armando reassured him and says "That's right, keep swingin', you make that axe get tired". Well, it's safe to say that the Armando's will prevailed..........the axe did get tired before Armando did.

Special thanks are also in order for Freddy Kailer from the U.S. Navy for his hard work too. We look forward to his return to one of our Habitat for Humanity of VC jobsites along with the rest of his crew soon.

Another group of awesome volunteers we owe thanks to came from St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church in Westlake Village CA. There was extensive landscape work to be done in the backyard and these fine young men and women did an outstanding job clearing out brush and trimming trees and hedges. And none of them quit despite the spiders, cobwebs and other really cool bugs that were discovered while cleaning out the backyard.

The landscape work was also one of the larger tasks that needed to be addressed and thanks to them, it was substantially completed. As Linda their Coordinator put it, "Thank you for spending your Saturday with us". I could not have said that better myself.................

These workdays are really a great deal of fun, not to mention rewarding. In just a few short hours, you see the fruit of your labor and how your work dramatically transforms the home. Would you like to help us transform homes? No experience? No worries, it's not necessary. Sign up through our website at http://www.habitatventura.org/volunteer/volunteer-sign-up. I will be looking for you at the site!